Voice For Liberty

Tag: Kansas legislature

Articles about the Kansas legislature, both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

  • Earl Watkins, Sunflower Chief Executive, speaks at AFP event

    Earl Watkins, President and CEO of Sunflower Electric Power Corporation recently spoke to a group of citizen activists as part of AFP – Kansas Day at the Capitol. Here’s a few notes from his talk.

    Did you know that Sunflower Electric is a not-for-profit organization?

    The demand for electricity changes constantly, moment-by-moment, throughout the day. Since electricity can’t be stored, matching generation to consumption of electricity is a challenge. Adding wind power makes this an even more challenging job, as wind power is very erratic.

    Watkins told a story of how a group of Kansas University students contacted him as part of their investigation of the “slothful and wasteful” practices of excess electricity consumption. Watkins told how when he attended KU, he had a radio and an electric typewriter in his dorm room, not to mention the forbidden hotplate. Today, however, these students have many electrical devices in their dorm rooms — refrigerators, microwave ovens, televisions, and computers, for example. Electrical power is a huge factor in the increased quality of life, especially for college students.

    The average age of Sunflower’s natural gas-powered plants is almost 40 years.

    While Kansas is often portrayed as having rich wind resources, the wind doesn’t always blow when power is needed. “The fact of the matter is, of the four seasons for harvesting wind, the summer in the day is the worst,” Watkins said. The highest demand for electrical power, of course, is on hot summer afternoons.

    It is the cost of the various forms of power generation that Sunflower uses that drives the decision as how to generate power and invest in capacity. These costs per kilowatt-hour are 1.5 cents for coal, 5 cents for wind, and 9 cents for natural gas.

    If the permit for the new coal plant is denied, Sunflower will be forced to build new wind and natural gas capacity. It’s estimated that the extra cost to consumers — remember these forms of generation are more expensive to build and operate than coal — is about $600 per household per year.

    Afterwards I asked Watkins a few questions. One concerned Cessna Aircraft Company chairman, president and chief executive officer Jack Pelton and his role as leader of the Kansas Energy and Environmental Policy Advisory Group (KEEP). How, I asked, does Pelton expect to build airplanes in Wichita when the wind isn’t blowing? The answer is that it’s easy for him to trade Western Kansas for a relationship with the Sebelius administration. This relationship has paid off handsomely for Pelton and Cessna, with $33 million in state money heading his way, and potential for more. My post Jack Pelton, Leader of Kansas Energy and Environmental Policy Advisory Group explains.

    Also, does the fact of Governor Sebelius’ impending departure from Kansas have any potential impact on the Kansas House of Representatives and its voting? He indicated that perhaps it would.

  • Legislative forum tomorrow

    Here’s a post by the Wichita Eagle’s Deb Gruver about a legislative forum to be held tomorrow. In my experience, these can be useful meetings for citizens to attend. To find the Marcus Center, click here to view WSU’s page for it and a map.

    Members of the south-central Kansas area legislative delegation will be available for questions at a forum Saturday.

    The forum will be from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. Saturday at the Marcus Welcome Center at Wichita State University.

    Legislators will answer questions from the public and discuss the current session in Topeka. The forum is free and open to the public.

  • Kansas Fed-Up with High Taxes

    Here’s a press release from the Kansas chapter of Americans For Prosperity reporting on the results of a poll about taxes and spending in Kansas.

    Interestingly, the poll found that a majority of lower-income Kansans are opposed to higher taxes on high income earners. This goes against the theme of some authors, including Thomas Frank, the author of the book “What’s the Matter with Kansas,” who argue that working-class people should vote their pocketbooks. Meaning, of course, soak the rich.

    Study Finds Kansas Fed-Up with High Taxes and Wasteful State Spending

    Lower-Income Residents Oppose Tax Hikes, Even if They Don’t Pay

    TOPEKA — A new survey by the free-market grassroots group Americans for Prosperity finds that 57 percent of Kansans believe the state’s taxes are too high, with 51 percent disapproving of the way the state legislature handles budget and tax issues. When asked to identify the most important issue in state budgeting, 43 percent identified wasteful spending on programs that do not work.

    “Kansas taxpayers have simply had enough,” said Derrick Sontag, state director of the Kansas chapter of Americans for Prosperity. “Legislators must work to address wasteful government spending before they even consider raising taxes on Kansas families and businesses.”

    The survey also finds that lower-income Kansans oppose higher taxes, even if they are not forced to pay them. A solid 60.3 percent of respondents earning under $30,000 rejected the idea of raising taxes on others.

    Respondents also rejected the idea of taxes that are paid for by working poor and lower income groups, with a decisive 91 percent opposing the taxes.

    The survey was conducted by Voter/Consumer Research, and is based on the responses of 613 registered voters across the state, conducted by telephone Jan. 28- Feb. 2 of this year. The margin of error is +/- 4 percent.

    The complete national and state results can be viewed at www.americansforprosperity.org/tax-survey.

  • Proposition K hearing spotlights differences

    At Wednesday’s hearing before the Kansas House of Representatives Taxation Committee, different ideas about property taxation became clear. The subject of the hearing was Proposition K, a proposal to reform property tax appraisals in Kansas. On this day, proponents of Proposition K testified.

    Questioning by Representative Nile Dillmore, Democrat from Wichita, provided an example of these differences. Dillmore asked about “infill” development, questioning the fairness of Proposition K. What about someone building a new house across the street from older houses? The new home might have cost $200 per square foot to build, while the old home is not worth anywhere near that much. “It seems patently unfair to me that situation would exist,” he said.

    Underlying Dillmore’s question, I believe, is refusal to either understand or to buy in to one of Proposition K’s tenets, which is a move away from property taxation based on wealth. Instead, Proposition K is based on a “fixed-share” concept of funding government.

    In answering the question, Professor Art Hall, the author of Proposition K, used this illustration: Suppose the new house being built across the street from a modest house has granite counters and other fancy (and expensive) appointments, but is the same size as the older home. “What is it about that choice that makes their stake in the local public services double what their neighbors’ are?”

    Rep. Dillmore turned the answer around, asking “Why am I being asked to pay the same property values as the guy with the castle?”

    It should be noted that under Proposition K the new construction would be valued based on the size of the structure. So if Rep. Dillmmore, by using the term “castle” means a large new house, it would pay more in taxes than the smaller surrounding houses. But a new house of same size would pay the same taxes as other nearby houses, even if it is built to luxury standards.

    At other times during the hearing it was mentioned that this might encourage construction of new houses in older neighborhoods. That seems like something that proponents of older parts of cities might welcome.

    This pushback by Dillmore is typical of those who benefit from the existing system. This system produces large increases in revenue for government without the need for elected officials to raise tax rates. For those who desire and thrive on increasing government spending — this includes the public school and local government lobbies — Proposition K will shine sunlight on this practice.

    It should be noted that Dillmore’s wife is Janet Miller, a candidate for Wichita city council. It was under her leadership as president of the Wichita Board of Park Commissioners that a very expensive plan for parks in Wichita was announced. Reform measures such as Proposition K will mean that the funding for plans like these will be more transparent to citizens.

    Coverage of this Proposition K hearing is available at Kansas House hears support for property tax proposals; foes to speak today. An illustration of how the combined affect of rising appraisals and rising mill levies creates large inflows of tax revenues for a school district can be found at Wichita School District Tax Revenues Rise Rapidly.

  • Public education illustrates special interest politics

    One of the problems with government today is the proliferation of special interest groups, and then how issues are framed according to the needs of these special interest groups.

    You might think that public education would fall outside the wrangling of special interest groups. After all, it’s “for the kids,” as we’re reminded. But the public schools and their lobby are one of the fiercest special interest groups.

    Even conservatives fall into this trap and may ask “what’s in it for me?” or “what is my relationship to this issue?” Here’s an example.

    On a recent episode of the KPTS television public affairs program Ask Your Legislator, a Kansas Representative, a conservative Republican, introduced his answer to a question about Kansas education funding this way:

    “I share the gentleman’s concern about public education since my wife is a teacher. I have no children in public schools at this time because they have all grown and left the public schools.”

    Why did he feel it was necessary to introduce his remarks this way? Is he saying that because his wife works for the public schools, he has an interest in their funding? That’s characteristic of special interests and their supporters.

    Or, since he has no children that attend public schools, he is less interested in their funding? Again, evidence of special interests at work.

    This Kansas House Member has a very good ranking from the Kansas Taxpayers Network, so he has proven conservative fiscal credentials. So I hate to pick on him.

    But this serves to illustrate how entrenched special interest politics are. We don’t even recognize it.

  • Kansas budget drama unnecessary

    Kansas news reports and blogs are still trying to decide who won last week’s showdown between Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius and Republican legislative leaders. GOP message lost in drama provides an example.

    But as reported on this blog (Sebelius’ Proposed Cuts Not Likely Enough, Kansas Governor Not Facing Reality of Budget Crisis) and in other places, this crisis was solely of the Governor’s own making.

    Her budget proposal for fiscal year 2009 from January met the legal requirement she faced, but came nowhere near facing the economic reality. Had she proposed a reasonable budget in January, this crisis — such as it was — could have been avoided.

    Instead, Governor Sebelius left it to the legislature to come up with a bill that met economic reality. Is that leadership? Can we be proud of this?

  • Kansas Governor Addresses Budget Crisis

    Today Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius held a press conference at 4:30 pm.

    She said she submitted a budget to the legislature five weeks ago, and that the bill just reached her desk today. But the budget she submitted back then, while meeting the requirements of law, didn’t meet the requirements of the situation. It was not a responsible budget. The legislature had to make the hard cuts. See Sebelius’ Proposed Cuts Not Likely Enough and Kansas Governor Not Facing Reality of Budget Crisis.

    Today, after the Governor’s action, there is less reduction in K-12 education that what was in the bill sent to her. She said the cuts to K-12 education that the legislature made are unacceptable.

    The problem going forward is that the 2010 budget will require even more cutting — more than twice as much — than what took five weeks of this session to accomplish.

  • Kansas Budget Crisis Heats Up

    It’s hard to know who’s on the right side in this matter. Facts seem to be in short supply, with contradictory statements coming from Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius and Kansas House and Senate Republican Leadership.

    The Wichita Eagle’s Wichitopekington blog contributes these posts: Talking points for legislative secretaries, Senate leaders urge governor to call council meeting today, and Governor sends message to state employees, which holds the text of an email message the Governor sent today. Blaming, naturally, Republicans.

    The Kansas Democratic Party has a post titled Tell Republicans to Stop Blackmailing and Get to Work, in which you can sign a petition. This site is not shy from using scare tactics such as articles titled Republican Budget Cuts Could Forces Schools to Fire Teachers.

    The Kansas Republican Assembly blog has the posts House leadership responds to Sebelius lies and Who will blink first?.

    In the post KS GOP Blasts Governor for Playing Politics with State Employees, Christian Morgan of the Kansas Republican Party claims that the Governor has the ability to do what needs to be done, but will not do so. There also the Statement from House Republican Leadership Regarding the Kansas Budget.

    The Kansas Jackass is on top of this all with posts like Walkout of State Employees Possible, Employees Threatened, At the Statehouse: Democratic Leadership Responds to GOP Blackmail of Sebelius, and GOP Leadership Blackmails Sebelius, Puts State Payroll in Jeopardy.

    The Kansas Trunkline, the official blog of the Kansas Republican Party, has What You Need to Know About the Kansas Budget Crisis and Governor Playing Politics with State Employees.

    Can you make sense of this?

  • Kansas budget crisis, now

    Breaking: see Kansas Governor Addresses Budget Crisis and Kansas Budget Crisis Heats Up.

    The Kansas Liberty story Lawmakers claim Sebelius’ demand for money would violate state statutes reports on a conflict between the two parties named in the story’s title.

    What Kansas Governor Kathleen Sibelius wants to do is to shift money from one state fund to another so that current bills, including state employee paychecks, can be paid. Later, the state would pay back the money borrowed.

    Republican legislative leaders are not willing to grant this authority to the Governor, however. Both sides accuse the other of playing politics with this issue. The Governor’s press release may be read here.

    (Similar information from Kansas House and Senate leaders is not available online, at least not where it can be found easily.)

    It’s difficult to be on the Governor’s side on this issue. Her initial attempt at balancing the 2009 budget complied with the law. But the law only required her to address revenue shortfalls based on estimates from two months ago, when everyone knew that the true situation was much worse. She took the easy way out, letting the legislature do the dirty work. (See Sebelius’ Proposed Cuts Not Likely Enough and Kansas Governor Not Facing Reality of Budget Crisis)

    For more coverage of this issue, see Wichitopekington, which has some coverage, as does the Wichita Eagle in Kansas may delay tax refunds, paychecks.

    Note: Kansas Liberty has recently become a subscription site, so you may not be able to read the entire article referred to above. I recommend, however, that you consider subscribing to Kansas Liberty.